No, Please

Awful Drawings #166, by Matthieu Barrère. You can see more Awful Drawings here.

Question

Today is not a quotation but a question... Could anybody (English native speaker) explain me what is the difference between mail box, post box and letter box? How do you use these words? Is there a difference between British and American English?

I'm not the only English learner who has problems with them, and I found contradictory explanations in different dictionaries, so I'm more confused after searching...

Thank you in advance!

Sligtly Damaged

Sent by Orlana (Brazil).

Beautiful postcard showing some pics of Porto Alegre. I have always loved the name of this city! The postcard took 35 days to arrive, and it was slightly damaged in way, as you can see...

Twaalf provinciën (II)

South Holland

Erasmus bridge in Rotterdam

Donald and Katrien (Daisy, for me) in the bollenvelden ('tulip fields').

Windmills in Kinderdijk (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

North Holland

The Dam Square and het Paleis op de Dam ('the Palace at the Dam')

Typical green/white houses in the Zaanstreek

The cheese market in Alkmaa

Twaalf provinciën (I)

The first Dutch-language issue of the Donald Duck comic book came out in 1952. To celebrate the 60th anniversary Donald Duck decided to leave Duckburg and visit the different provinces of the Netherlands. Every month a different province.  

The Dutch post issued "postsets" (three postcards with three matched stamps per set) in order to commemorate this special trip. Heleen have sent some of them to me... so I have learnt a lot about Dutch geography and culture!

PS I also discovered that Donald's nephews (Huey, Dewy and Louie) are called in Dutch Kwik, Kwek and Kwak. This sound to me like more suitable names for three ducks! I have never read these comics in my language. In Spain the names are Jorgito, Juanito and Jaimito (rather unpronounceable!). But they have different names in other countries. And in yours?

Friesland

Write in Frisian!
It this Vuurduin lighthouse? I think so!

The hut selling food and drink on a near ice for skaters is called "Koek-en-zopie".

  Limburg

In Vrijthof Square (Maasthicht).

Donald and his nephews are eating the typical "Limburgse Vlaai". 

The highest part of the country. Not real mountains, but still hard to climb by bike! (And especially if your nephews are so sassy!).

Christmas and New Year Mail (3)

OMG! I must arrive on time to post this letter!

Sent to XX Jones (Austria).

Collage (front and back) made of press cuttings, washi tape and rubber stamps.

I wish you Happy Christmas Day if you celebrate this feast!

Christmas and New Year Mail (2)

 

Sent to Heleen (the Netherlands).

Collage (front and back) made of press cuttings, washi tape and rubber stamps I carved. All hand made!
Also published here.

Happy Christmas to the readers who celebrate this feast!

Technique épistolaire

« C'était à Venise. Disputes orageuses entre Georges Sand, l'écrivain aux yeux de braise, et Musset, son amant pâle et capricieux. Il a une crise. Elle appelle un médecin à son chevet... Le docteur Pagello arrive. Pendant vingt-six jours, il soigne le malade et... il est séduit entre temps par son "infirmière". Celle-ci a utilisé la technique qu'elle maîtrise le mieux, la technique épistolaire. Elle confie un soir au médecin un petit mot, avec une série de questions: "Seras-tu pour moi un appui ou un maître ? Me consoleras-tu des maux que j'ai souffert avant de te rencontrer ? Sauras-tu pourquoi je suis triste ? Connais-tu la compassion, la patience, l'amitié ? On t'a élevé, peut-être dans la conviction que les femmes n'ont pas d'âme. Sais-tu qu'elles en ont une ? (...)"

Devinez ce qui arriva. Le Docteur Pagello tomba amoureux fou de celle qui avait rédigé le billet. Si vous vivez comme moi dans une capitale arabe, il vaut mieux, mesdemoiselles, mesdames, ne pas signer ce genre de littérature. Vous risquez des complications : il est déjà arrivé que des messieurs les exhibent ! Croyez-moi, c'est l'expérience qui parle... »

Fatema Mernissi

(L'Amour dans les pays musulmans: A travers le miroir des textes anciens)

Sun

Sent by Catherine (France).

A summer letter when the winter is starting!

I Just Like It

Sent by Heleen (The Netherlands).

F1 Circuit

Sent by Sylvia (China).

You can see in the postcard the Shangai International F1 Circuit. I was surprised to receive it because I am not into F1 (not into any sport, I am afraid). So I never expect to receive a postcard about sports.

But as usual, when the sender takes the time to write something interesting on the back, the postcard becomes attractive. Now the postcard is among my favourites!

I like this side of Postcrossing: we learn a lot about unexpected things, people and places! Also about ourselves.

I Live Here

When you move from a place to another, you feel like showing your new city to your friends and possibly your pen friends. But it is truly disappointing when you cannot buy nice postcards... Tetouan is not a small city (more than 300,000 inhabitants!), but it seems impossible to find more than these postcards. Maybe five or six different designs, not more. All look very old-fashioned and faded, and do not show the best parts in the city. Definitely, I think these postcards do not do Tetouan justice. It is much more than that!

What do you think about these postcards?

Houses

Sent by Eva (Germany).

I know it is not, but it seems that the house in the stamp could be the same one as the cosy house drawn on the envelope (and on the writing paper inside).

Retro Women

Sent by Marlene (the United States).
Postcard designed by Anne Taintor (here you can read more about her).

I opened this album when I receive this postcard form Marlene. I added two postcards previously sent by Laura (the UK) by Ephemera. I named it retro women, but maybe there is a better name in English to refer to this 50s & 60s retro style... (Please, tell me!).

P.S. I Love You

P.S. I Love You

The Beatles

As I write this letter,

Send my love to you,

Remember that I'll always, 

Be in love with you. 

Treasure these few words 'til we're together,

Keep all my love forever, 

P.S., I love you. 

You, you, you.

I'll be coming home again to you, love,

And 'til the day I do, love, 

P.S., I love you. 

You, you, you. 

As I write this letter,

Send my love to you, 

Remember that I'll always, 

Be in love with you. 

Treasure these few words 'til we're together,

Keep all my love forever, 

P.S., I love you. 

You, you, you.

As I write this letter, (Oh oh oh)

Send my love to you, (You know I want you to) 

Remember that I'll always, (Yeah) 

Be in love with you. 

I'll be coming home again to you, love,

And 'til the day I do, love, 

P.S., I love you. 

You, you, you. 

You, you, you. 

I love you.

Head Post Office

Sent by Eugenia (Ukraine).
Maximum postcard featuring the building of Donesk Head Post Office.

King's Library

Sent by Laura (the UK).
Two postcards (inside and outside) from the British Library in London (the UK): a view of the King's Library from above and the Piazza.

I like the colours in the second postcard. And... how I would like to take a coffee in that café after visiting the library!

Christmas and New Year Mail (1)

Christmas mail is on its way!

Sent to Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, PC, Taiwan, the Netherlands, the UK... Did I forget any destination?

Smart and Graceful

This is the mail box where I usually post my letters and postcards. Isn't it smart and graceful? 

Send Me Your Mirrors

Sent to Eutrapèlia (PC).

Send me your mirrors!, by Eutrapèlia, is not exactly a mail project. She started to collect mirrors in the form of literature (in all languages) because an academic paper. She has amassed quite a collection already! In fact, she has published literary quotations and poems by a lot of different authors, but also pictures, paintings, songs, films... and, of course, postcards about mirrors.

I've sent some postcards like this, this, this, etc.

And she is still waiting for your mirrors!
Please, send your mirrors to: sendmeyourmirrors AT gmail DOT com

Old & New Together

Sent by Laura (Spain).

Postcard showing the Casa del Cordón, a 15th century palace recently restored in the city of Burgos (north of Spain). You can see in the postcard the before and the after. I like this idea, as I like postcards showing the inside and the outside of a building, or the same place in daylight and at night, or the same picture big and small...

Moroccan Cheese

Sent to Heleen (the Netherlands).

Three postcards made from two cheese boxes and one label. I made these postcards to complete this sending. I found these boxes funnier because "La Hollandaise/الهولندية" means 'the Dutch woman'. So the receiver!

I also found a round stamp. I love different shaped stamps, and specially the round ones:

Also published here.

Altstadt

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Altstadt, by Sigrid Reiss. It seems a photo, but it is an amazing painting.
Sometimes I feel like sharing just a beautiful postcard, a beautiful image I found in my mail box. I love snails. Besides this, they fits in with this moment of my life when managing things take a lot of time.

Also published here.

Huis or Thuis

Sent by Heleen (The Netherlands).

It says: "A 'home'is made by the one who lives there, not by the one who designs it". It is a difference between the Dutch word huis ('house') and the word thuis ('home'). I just love the postcard. It is the right time to remind me this saying: when we are trying to turn this house into a home!

Returned

 

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Also published here. 

This letter spent a lot of time to reach my mail box. It was not a surprise: mail works differently in Morocco, you know. But maybe there is an extra reason. The sender tell us in her blog: "(...) to my surprise the Dutch post first had watched on the (stamp-free!) back side of the envelope and delivered it initially... to me!.. I put it in the letterbox again, and hope it now is on its way to you!". For that reason she added the arrows, I suppose.

Finally it arrived with an amazing picture of La Vieille Lighthouse inside. It is not an unknown shore. I have seen this famous lighthouse in many pictures. And... I have also seen the real one (from the coast). It was during a trip in Brittany (France) in 2003. It was a very nice trip from lighthouse to lighthouse...

Heleen also added some Australian used stamps with different lighthouses: Cape Naturaliste, Troubridge Island and Wollongong Head.

And the artistamp is about a novel by the Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

NB I adore the fact that I can include five countries in the same post: the Netherlands, Morocco, France, Spain and Australia!

Wonka Sweets

Sent by Eutrapèlia (PC).

Handmade postcard made of a box of Everlasting Gobstopper bought in the USA.

This kind of sweets, sold by The Willy Wonka Candy Company, are named after the Roald Dahl's children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In Dahl's story, Everlasting Gobstoppers are purported to last forever. 

Have you ever tasted them? Do they really last forever?!?

Lego Postman

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Have you guessed what it contained?

Yes: a little mail carrier because I missed my former one! :D

Also published in her blog nog meer post! The funny thing is that I saw this post before receiving the letter, and I thought she was sending me a picture of the Lego postman... not a real (I mean, 3D) postman!

I Love NY

Sent by Chi (Taiwan).

Postcard bought in the MoMA of NY (the USA). The title of this work by Experimental Jetset is I Love Stamps / Stamps Love Me / I Love Postcards (1998-99).

The sender wrote that this postcard is 100% NY style.

I love postcards, and I adore metapostcards!

Coffee & Creativity

Sent to Heleen (the Netherlands).

Altered postcard (see the original below). It's an ad postcard for art workshops in Estudio Rossana Zaera. I love these postcards!! They are perfect to be altered (see here and here).
Also published here.

I also used masking tape in the envelope:

The original:

Mail a Whale

Sent by Postmuse (the USA).

It is a thank you card for one of my contributions to her amazing project: Orphaned Postcard Project. I found the postcard really funny. And the postcard is very useful. I mean if you intend to send a whale. But I must add that I once I sent a whale trough mail successfully.

The back: